Reading Time: 8 minutesCarbon footprint calculators have been on my radar for a long time now, and lately ‘Net Zero’ has crept into the frame. Having followed green-living news out of interest, it’s inevitable; I could hardly have missed either of these terms. I’ve tried plugging my life details into a few carbon footprint calculators, out of curiosity, […]
Landscape and Nature
Regenerative Goods, Rewilding, and Land Sharing
Reading Time: 8 minutes‘Regenerative’ is word that is cropping up more lately. Yes, despite our lives becoming more tech-filled by the day, it seems there’s a band of people who hanker after the ‘stuff’ in their lives to be made of more natural materials; less corporate, branded and remote. Is this you too? I’ve thought much about regenerative […]
On Drover’s Roads, Prehistoric Settlement and Ancient Landscapes
Reading Time: 2 minutesWe recently excavated a rare kind of Iron Age settlement in Warwickshire. From out the ground came evidence that pointed us to our age-old habit of walking with animals. Our site sat in an ancient landscape, most likely riddled with drover’s roads and ancient byways, connecting places of a similar type. Herders traded livestock north […]
How Diverse Grains and Pulses Save Soils, Save Wildlife and Help Us With Food Security
Reading Time: 2 minutesWheat, rye, barley, oats, peas and beans. These grains and pulses have been with us for thousand of years. Yet, we’ve become very wheat-centric in recent years and might not appreciate why diverse grains and pulses have always been a strategy for food security in the past. So they can be now. Local crops for […]
Regenerative Fashion, Wildlife and Fibres
Reading Time: 5 minutesRegenerative fashion is emerging out of regenerative farming. It’s nothing new of course, as we’ve been regenerating soils, wildlife, crops and livestock together out in the fields for an age, whether that’s been through our efforts to produce crops for food and fibre, or rearing sheep, cattle and other animals for meat, milk, wool and […]
Herdwick and Swaledale Yarn, Local Cloth, Local Landscape
Reading Time: 3 minutesHerdwick and Swaledale Yarn; local yarn for local cloth. Actually this isn’t local yarn to me, but it’s locally distinctive yarn. It’s shorn from sheep able to weather windy hilltops and cold winters of northern England. With their slightly kempy (hairy) woolly coat, they produce a durable, hardy yarn that’s more likely to make it into […]
